Senator tells Transportation Commission it can't raise bridge tolls

OLYMPIA - A state senator said Tuesday that there won't be any toll increases on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge this year because the Washington State Transportation Commission no longer has authority to raise rates and the Legislature won't have time.

Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, spoke at the commission's regular monthly meeting, where it passed a proposal to adopt a 25-cent across-the-board increase each of the next two years, effective July 1.

Rates are now $4 for electronic collection, $5 at the toll booths and $6 for pay-by-mail.

In December, Roach requested a review from the attorney general's office on the effects of Initiative 1185, passed by voters in November. The query was referred to the Office of Financial Management, which ruled March 8 that no transportation toll can be increased except by legislative approval. She said lawmakers won't risk the political costs of delegating their authority to the Transportation Commission, though that's what they've done on other occasions.

"It sounds a little risky," she said. "I wouldn't want to do it."

Roach said the public would perceive it as circumventing their will.

"They have very strongly stated that want someone who is accountable to make these decisions. And to be accountable, you must be elected." It would be "very difficult if not impossible," she said, for the Legislature to raise bridge tolls during the current legislative session.

If tolls aren't raised and expenses can't be covered by the bridge fund, the money would have to be paid from the Motor Vehicle Fund, said Transportation Commission Executive Director Reema Griffith.

Language has been included in the commission's proposal that it's subject to the Legislature delegating authority. If it doesn't, the proposal will be null and void, Griffith said.

The commission accepted the Tacoma Narrows Bridge Citizen Advisory Committee's recommendation for a 25-cent increase and added a second year on top of it.

The rate would be adopted at a public hearing in May and go into effect July 1.

Sen. Nathan Schlicher, D-Gig Harbor, also spoke to the commission. He had sponsored a bill that would have limited bridge administrative costs to 2 percent of expenses and possibly staved off toll increases. It failed, but he said people still want to know their tax money is being spent wisely.

"The initiative (1185) said government needs to think every time it spends a dollar of our money, and that's what I ask," he said.

Commission chairman Dan O'Neal, of Belfair, said it's prudent to put the mechanism for toll increases in place so it is prepared should the Legislature give it authority.

A public input meeting on the proposal will be 6-8 p.m. April 15 and a final hearing the same time May 20, both at Gig Harbor Civic Center, 3510 Grandview St.